Rain washes out first day of NCAA baseball regional in Charlottesville

June 01, 2012|By Norm Wood, nwood@dailypress.com | 757-247-4642

CHARLOTTESVILLE — After six hours of watching rain drops fall Friday on Davenport Field in Charlottesville, Virginia postponed its game against Army until Saturday afternoon in an NCAA baseball tournament regional.

U.Va. (38-17-1) got started against Army, but a rain delay began just 15 minutes after the first pitch. Play never picked back up, as rain fell off and on for the next six hours. The game will resume Saturday at 1 p.m. in the bottom of the first inning with the teams in a scoreless tie.

Oklahoma (38-22) is now scheduled to play Appalachian State (39-16) on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Sunday will be the marathon day of the regional.

On Sunday, the Army-U.Va. loser will play the Appalachian State-Oklahoma loser at 11 a.m. At 3 p.m., the Army-U.Va. winner will play the Appalachian State-Oklahoma winner. At 7 p.m., the winner of the 11 a.m. game will play the loser of the 3 p.m. game.

On Monday, the winners of Sunday's 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. games will meet at 4 p.m. If both teams from the 4 p.m. game have one loss each in the regional, they'll meet again Monday evening 50 minutes after the completion of the 4 p.m. game.

When play resumes Saturday, U.Va.'s Branden Cogswell will be batting with no outs. Leadoff hitter Chris Taylor will be on first base after reaching via a walk. It remains to be seen if U.Va. will bring back right-handed starting pitcher Branden Kline (6-3, 3.68 ERA), or if Army (41-13) will stick with right-handed starter Chris Rowley (11-0, 1.97).